Toronto Leads in North America Constructing Skyscrapers and High-Rise Buildings

In terms of completed high-rises and skyscrapers, Toronto stands in the second position in North America with 1,875 after New York with 5,000. According to Emporis, a high-rise building is 35 – 100 meters tall (12 – 39 floors) and buildings above 100 meters are considers skyscrapers.
   
Now, let’s look at Toronto’s top 5 skyscrapers under construction.

Trump Tower – Located in the heart of downtown Toronto’s financial district at Bay and Adelaide at 25 Adelaide St. West, this 900 feet (276 meters) glass and steel tower will be the second tallest building and the tallest residential building in Canada. The original plan was to make it a 70-floor building, but later the builder settled with 57 floors.

College Park Aura - Located in downtown Toronto’s Yonge district at Yonge St. and Gerrard St. at 444 Yonge St., this 873 feet (266 meters) 75-storey skyscraper will be completed in 2014 and will tie Ten York condo in floors. Aura will be Canada’s tallest residential condo.

Number One Bloor – Located in the heart of downtown Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville’s upscale neighbourhood, Toronto’s most prestigious address Number One Bloor is located at the southeast corner of Yonge St. and Bloor St. This 777-ft. (237 meters) skyscraper will be completed in 2015 and will have 65 floors.

Ten York - Located in downtown Toronto’s financial and waterfront district at York and Harbour St. at 10 York St., this 787-ft. (240 meters), 75-storey skyscraper is a joint venture between city-owned development agency Build Toronto and Tridel.

120 Harbour - Talks are underway to build a 75-storey skyscraper at 120 Harbour St.

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World’s Tallest Skyscraper Will Be in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia recently announced to build the world’s tallest skyscraper. The multi-purpose Kingdom Tower near Red Sea in Jeddah will stand 1000 meters tall (3,280 feet) and will be located in the centre of the $20 billion dollar Kingdom City Development project. This tower will have office space, a Four Seasons hotel, condominiums, the world’s highest observatory deck, encompassing about 5.4 million square feet of space.

Kingdom Tower will be designed by Chicago-based architectural firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill. The Saudis have awarded this $1 billion plus project to the Saudi construction giant The Binladen Group. The construction of the world’s tallest tower is expected to take about five years.

Once completed, Kingdom Tower would break the record of the world’s current tallest skyscraper Burj Khalifa in Dubai. 828 meters Burj Khalifa is not only tallest building in the world but also the world’s tallest free-standing structure. Canada’s 553 meters CN Tower (completed in 1976) held records for being the world’s tallest free-standing structure and the world’s tallest tower for 34 years until the completion of Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Canton Tower in China.

Saudi Arabia, an oil dependent country, recently trying to emerge from an oil-based economy to a diversified economy. Currently Saudi Arabia is working on various projects to build numbers of economic cities, complexes, and skyscrapers to become an economic hub in that region.

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The Tallest Building In Canada

Canada is not-known for skyscrapers, even though it has one of the tallest buildings on the planet; The CN Tower. However, if there is going to be a tallest building in Canada, then it should come as no surprise that it is found in Toronto, the commercial and cultural centre of the country.

First Canadian Place is the tallest skyscraper in Canada, sitting in the financial district of Toronto. It is the headquarters of the Bank of Montreal and it stands at 951 feet. It is the 11^th tallest building in North America and the 68^th tallest in the world. Within Canada, it is the third tallest free-standing structure after the CN Tower and the Inco Superstack in Sudbury, Ontario.

The building was designed by Bregman and Hamann  Architects (Image via Wikipedia) and constructed in 1975, when it was called the First Bank Building. It  sat on the site of the Old Toronto Star Building.
It took many years for the skyscraper to be built, before anything was dug because of bidding wars for the entire block during a revitalization of the area in the 1960s and the 1970s. Eventually however, the building was built and completed. It is identical in appearance to the Aaon Center in Chicago, which itself was built only two years earlier.

When you factor in the spire on the top of the skyscraper, the building is 1,165 feet. It has a total of 72 floors, and four floors that are below the ground. The building is served by 29 elevators and has a total floor area of 2.7 million square feet.

When the building was completed, it was the 8^th tallest building to the structural top and the tallest building outside of Chicago and New York. It was also the tallest building in the British Commonwealth, until the Petronas Towers in Malaysia overtook them.

Until 1997, the ‘M’ sign of the Bank of Montreal on the building was the highest sign in the world.

In 2009, the building underwent a complete revitalization. Over 45,000 marble panels were replaced with new glass panels and white ceramic frits, along with bronze tint corners. New landscaping, handrails and water features were added in to change the look of the building even more and make it look more modern among the other buildings in the area. The total cost of the project was $100 million and it was paid by the owners of the building.

Canada may not be known for tall buildings but its three tallest structures just happen to be three of the tallest structures on the planet. That should say something about Canada, even though the world may not know that we have these structures, we find a way to sneak up onto lists and take them over.

While First Canadian Place may be the tallest skyscraper in Toronto, it is overshadowed greatly by the CN Tower. However, if you are in Toronto, make sure you check out this very tall building for yourself.

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The Shard of Glass

It may not be the tallest building in the world, in fact it is less than half the height of the tallest building in the world, but the Shard of Glass, also known as Shard London Bridge, is a truly beautiful building.

Currently under construction in London, England, this skyscraper is scheduled to be finished in 2012 for the Summer Olympics in London. Upon its completion, it will become the 45^th tallest building in the world, the second-tallest freestanding structure in the United Kingdom after the Emley Moor Transmitting Station and the tallest building in the European Union.

The tower will stand 1,017 feet, or 310 meters and have 72 floors. In addition, there will be an additional 15 radiator floors that sit on the roof.

One of the more interesting factors about this building, and its defining characteristic, is the fact that it has an irregular triangular shape. As well, the building is completely covered in glass, which is where the name Shard of Glass comes from.

The skyscraper, which will have an open-air observation deck on the top of the 72^nd floor, was designed by noted architect Renzo Piano who considers the slender form of the skyscraper a positive addition ot the skyline of London.

Piano created the unique angles of the Shard of Glass so that it will reflect light and the changing patterns in the sky, depending on the time of day, year and season.

The public viewing gallery on the top is expected to draw over two million people per year. The skyscraper, along with its smaller companion building known as London Bridge Place, are part of a revitalization project for the surrounding area, which also includes a museum, a concours and a public piazza.

Upon its completion, it will surpass the Frankfurt Commerzbank Tower, which is currently the tallest building in the European Union, and has been since 1997. It was hoped that the Shard of Glass would also be the tallest building in Europe, taking into account cities in Russia including Moscow, but this may not be the case. The Triumph-Palace and Naberezhnaya Tower have both been completed and both are taller than the Shard of Glass. Another building in Moscow, the Mercury City Tower, will also be taller than the Shard of Glass when it is completed.

Needless to say, the Shard of Glass will be the tallest building in the European Union but not for long. It is expected that the Hermitage Plaza, which will rise to 323 metres, will become the tallest building in the European Union when it is completed in France in 2016.

Due to the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001, a complete re-evaluation was done on tall structures across the planet and the Shard of Glass is among the first in the United Kingdom to be built using the US National Institute of Standards and Technology report on the WTC collapse, meaning it will withstand the most difficult conditions nature and man can put up against it.

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Skyscrapers dominate cities these days but there was a time when no building, apart from a church, were higher than five floors at most. That has changed immensely and its origin can be traced back to one building in Chicago, which started the dawn of the skyscraper age. It was the Home Insurance Building and it has the honour of being the world’s first skyscraper.

Built in 1885 in Chicago, Illinois, the Home Insurance Building was the first building to use a structural steel frame, although it should be noted that the majority of the building was composed of cast and wrought iron, making it extremely heavy. That being said, it is the first tall building to be supported, inside and out, with a fireproof metal frame. There was a previous building to use this method, the Ditherington Flax Mill, but it was only five stories tall, while the Home Insurance Building was 10 stories tall. The building stood 138 feet, and it had two additional floors installed in 1890 to make it 12 stories tall. It was also the first building to carry both floors and external walls on its metal frame. The architect of this legendary skyscraper was William Le Baron Jenney, who was an engineer that saw the potential for the power of steel. The building was so revolutionary that many worried about its safety and its construction was halted so that city officials could inspect it to see if it would fall over. It was not long before this idea was copied over and over. In 1888, an architect in Minneapolis named Leroy Buffington was given a patent to build a skeletal-frame tall building, which he proposed as a 28-story stratosphere-scraper. It was mocked at the time but within a few decades, that patent was used to create the dominant building form of the 20^th century.

While the building may have been revolutionary, it only lasted to 1931 when it was demolished to make way for the Field Building. Today, the Bank of America Building now occupies the site where the first skyscraper once stood and in its lobby it has a plaque that reads:

This section of the Field Building is erected on the site of the Home Insurance Building which structure, designed and built in eighteen hundred and eighty four by the late William Le Baron Jenney, was the first high building to utilize as the basic principle of its design the method known as skeleton construction and, being a primal influence in the acceptance of this principle was the true father of the skyscraper, 1932

This skyscraper is the first of what would be many. Without the Home Insurance Building, we would not have New York as we know it. There would be no Empire State Building, no Sears Tower and no large skyscrapers of any type. This one building literally changed the world for all of us over 100 years ago in Chicago.

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Everyone knows about the destruction of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, but quietly on that piece of land, a new tower is being built that will be taller and much more modern than the destroyed towers. It is One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower and upon its completion in 2013, it will be one of the most famous skyscrapers in the United States.

Construction of the tower began on April 27, 2006 under the name of Freedom Tower, however, on March 30, 2009, the name was officially changed to One World Trade Center since it covers the northwest corner of the World Trade Center Site. The building will feature several high rise buildings around it, a National September 11 Memorial and Museum and park area. When completed, it will stand at 1,776 feet, representing the Independence Year of the United States. It will also be the tallest building in the United States, and will stand 100 feet above the Empire State Building.

The building will include 2.6 million sq. ft. of office space, an observation deck, a restaurant, parking, broadcast facilities, and several public spaces. There will be 69 tenant floors rising up to 1,120 feet, followed by the restaurants and observation decks. There will be a glass parapet at 1,362 and 1,368 feet, which marks the height of the original towers that stood on the site.

The tower will feature several safety features including three foot thick reinforced concrete walls on every stairwell, elevator shaft, sprinkler system and risers. The emergency stairs will be very wide and there will be stairwells that are for the exclusive use of firefighters. Windows will be equipped with blast-resistant plastic. The glass will also improve daylight within the building, and the tower will use rainwater collection and a recycling scheme that will give it a Gold Certification through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The rooftop level of the tower was expected to be finished between October and December of 2011, with the spire going in by 2012. However, the completion was pushed back to 2013. Overall, the building of the tower will cost $3.1 billion, and it will use 50,000 tons of steel.

An interesting note for the construction happened on July 14, 2010, when an 18^th century sailing ship was found at the site as workers were excavating the site of an underground vehicle security center for the building. A 32-foot hull and 100 pound anchor were found, and archaeologists believe that the ship was used as landfill material during the 19^th century as a way to expand the land of Manhattan.

One World Trade Center will probably become the most recognizable building in New York upon its completion and there will be many who will be happy to set up shop on one of its 105 floors. From a tragedy, a new building rises from the ashes, with safety systems in place that show designers have learned from the past.

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When we think about skyscrapers, we usually only think of how tall they are, but the Digital Media City Landmark Building in South Korea shows that it is about what is inside the skyscraper, not how tall it is in many cases. This building, which will be 640 metres tall and has 133 floors, will be the third tallest building in the world and the tallest building in Korea and East Asia. With construction beginning last October, it is expected that it will be completed by April 2015, for the low cost of $2.9 billion.

The skyscraper itself will feature a wide assortment of things within it including an observation deck on the 133^rd floor that will allow everyone to see all of Seoul, and as far away as Gaeseong, North Korea. This will be the tallest observation deck in the world, a full 11 floors ahead of the observation deck on the tallest building in the world; Burj Khalifa. From the 108^th floor to the 130^th floor, there will be several six and eight-star hotels, which surpasses the Park Hyatt Hotel for the highest hotel rooms on the planet.

It does not stop there though. The building will also house high-tech offices, apartments, a department store, shopping malls, a convention center, restaurants, media facilities and an interactive aquarium. The aquarium will be an 110,000 square feet and will be the largest of its kind in the world. This aquarium will be extremely high-tech and interactive, costing over one billion dollars over the course of the next five years.

The rundown of the floors for this building is as follows:

• 132^nd to 133^rd Floors: Observation deck and media art center
• 131^st Floor: An open studio and broadcasting facility
• 128^th to 130rd Floors: Concert restaurant
• 108^th to 130rd Floors: six to eight star Hotels
• 85^th to 107^th Floors: Family and business hotels
• 46^th to 84^th Floors: First class apartments
• 9^th to 45^th Floors: High tech offices
• 7^th to 8^th Floors: Convention centers
• 1^st to 7^th Floors: Department stores and shopping malls
• Basement Sixth to First Floors: Aquarium

The skyscraper will have windows that will look like windows in traditional Korean houses, and the exterior of the skyscraper will have 40,000 LED panels that will emit light at various colors. The middle of the building will be empty, which allows the structure to move and improves the resistance to bending roughly three-fold. Like many skyscrapers these days, being environmentally friendly is also important and this skyscraper will feature a green roof, and automatic ventilation windows. Mirrors will also be used to direct light throughout the building, helping to save energy on powering lights within the skyscraper. The Digital Media Tower shows that skyscrapers these days are not being built with being the tallest in mind, but having the most in them and being the most environmentally-friendly.  This tower is truly going to be a sight to see and experience.

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Moving Towers

No, you did not read that wrong. There is indeed a skyscraper being built, which will be completed this year, which moves. It doesn’t move around the city but each floor within the skyscraper does move, giving the skyscraper a consistently changing shape. Called the Dynamic Tower, it is the first such skyscraper in the world to be called a moving skyscraper.

Designed by David Fisher, the tower has 80 floors and each floor spins on a central column for a total of 360 degrees. Each apartment in the tower is expected to cost between $3.7 million and $36 million, with the total cost of the Dynamic Tower reaching roughly $800 million.

Each floor of the tower rotates independently of other floors, completing a full rotation in the space of about 90 minutes. Each floor rotates at the speed of roughly 20 feet per minute. One of the more interesting aspects of this tower is that it is the world’s first prefabricated skyscraper. What this means is that the tower is made up of 40 factory-built modules for each floor and 90 percent of The Dynamic Tower will be built in a factory and shipped to Dubai. Amazingly, this allows the tower to be built in the space of just under two years, which is truly monumental and 30 percent faster than what a typical 80 storey skyscraper takes to be built. The only part that is built at the construction site is the central core that the floors all spin on.

This also makes construction of the tower much safer for workers since most workers will be located in factories where they preinstall kitchen and bathroom fixtures, along with pretty much everything else that the apartments in the tower need.

Now, the really cool thing about The Dynamic Tower is that it is extremely environmentally-friendly. Water is recycled within the tower and the entire tower is powered by wind turbines and solar panels. This gives enough surplus electricity for Dubai to power five other 80-story buildings within the vicinity of The Dynamic Tower. Each floor will have turbines hooked up to harvest the high winds located well-above ground level. In theory, these turbines could generate 1.2 million kilowatt-hours of energy. Each floor will also have solar panels attached to the roof.

For the people who live near the tower, they will never be bored by the look of it. The designers say that the tower will never have the same look at any time in its life. So, when you see it, you are seeing something that will never look that way again. A truly revolutionary concept that could change how skyscrapers look, are powered and are made from now on.

This concept of moving towers has proven to be so popular that there are already plans for a 70-story moving tower to be built in Moscow. It won’t be long before these moving skyscrapers are being made across the United States either.

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Tallest Skyscrapers in the World

Skyscrapers are essentially a 20^th century invention, and while tall buildings have existed for thousands of years, they reached new heights when skyscrapers began to pop up around the world. Each time a skyscraper was built; there was the drive of the builders to have the tallest building in the city, country and in the world. Since the early part of the 20^th century, the drive to have the world’s tallest building has been a constant battle between cities within a country and among countries around the world.

Things started off with the Flatiron Building, which was built to 87 meters and became the tallest skyscraper in the world when it was completed in 1902. The new steel structure of the building allowed the building to reach such a high vertical height and it was not long before other buildings in New York City began to copy the style and build to new heights. The Singer Building and Metropolitan Life Tower both succeeded Flatiron as tallest buildings within the city and the world.

The height of skyscrapers really increased with the Woolworth Building in New York City, which was built overlooking City Hall. Built to 241 meters, it became the world’s tallest building in 1913 when it was completed. It would keep this title until 1930 when the building was surpassed in its height by 40 Wall Street.

The newest world’s tallest skyscraper only had its title for a few months before the Chrysler Building took over title. Built to 319 meters, the Chrysler Building became an icon of New York City, but even its title as world’s tallest skyscraper did not last long. In 1931, only one year after the Chrysler Building was finished, the Empire State Building would rise to 381 meters and become the world’s tallest building. Unlike other buildings that held onto their title for a few years at most, the Empire State Building would remain the world’s tallest building for over 40 years.

In 1972, New York once again built to new heights with the completion of the World Trade Center, which consisted of two towers reaching to the equal height of 417 meters. Their title as world’s tallest skyscrapers would only last one year before the Sears Tower (Willis Tower) was completed in Chicago. This building reached up to 442 meters, or nearly half a kilometer and it would keep the title as the world’s tallest building until 2004. Currently, it remains the tallest skyscraper in the United States and the last, so far, of the American skyscrapers to be considered the tallest in the world.

America’s dominance of the tallest skyscraper category ended with the building of the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which took over the title as world’s tallest skyscraper in 2004. This building reached to a roof height of 448 meters, but the title of world’s tallest building would not last long for this new skyscraper. Over in the Middle East, the tallest building was about to be built and it would be unlike anything ever built.

In 2010, the title of world’s tallest building passed from Taipei 101 to Burj Khalifa. This building did not beat the Taipei 101 building by a few meters for the title, it beat the building by nearly 400 meters, which amounts to almost half a kilometers in height! Burj Khalifa stands at 828 meters, making it nearly one kilometer high and by far the world’s tallest skyscraper and building. To put it in perspective, this Dubai skyscraper is half-a-kilometer higher than both the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building.  The Burj Khalifa also took over the title of world’s tallest free-standing structure over from the CN Tower, which for decades held the title.

Of course, this does not mean that skyscrapers will stop increasing now that the previous tallest record has been shattered. Many buildings are currently building to immense heights of over 500 meters, and in the future there will be some that challenge Burj Khalifa for its title. In fact, the Mile High Tower, proposed to be built in Saudi Arabia, would stand at an astounding 1,600 meters, or double the height of the Burj Khalifa. Whether or not it will be built is a question that cannot be answered quite yet.

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World’s Tallest SkyScraper

In September 2004, the Burj Dubai project started, intending to build what was expected to become the world’s tallest building. In officially opening the building, this January of 2010 – some two years after the originally intended completion date in 2008, the opening ceremony is testament to the spirit of co-operative human endeavour, overcoming all obstacles, including global recession, to achieve an outcome which is recognized as being second to none – the achi evement of having built the tallest building in  the world.

Despite good progress until late 2008, the fate of the Burj Dubai was left somewhat in the balance when the exposure of the emirate of Dubai to the financial havoc caused by global recession became apparent, with Burj Dubai looking likely to become one of many fire sale items that might need to be sold off to get the emirate out of the red. However, in the pomp and ceremony of the opening day was included a re-naming ceremony for the Burj Dubai – and it was formally opened as the Burj Khalifa – by way of tribute to the leader of Abu Dhabi – Sheik Khalifia bin Zayed Al Nahayan  who recently provided financial assistance to the neighboring Dubai to the tune of  CAD 11 ($10) billion securing the financial future of Dubai and ensuring completion of the Burg Khalifa, enabling it to take its place as the fully accredited tallest building in the world. It can be seen from 95 kilometers away. The Khalifa Tower is around half a mile high and overlooks the entire city, including existing tall buildings, it is expected to be a tourist magnet, not only for its unique height, but its location from which can be accessed all of the wonders of Dubai – the world’s largest arch bridge, the twirling tower, a refrigerated beach and some artificial islands shaped like a map of the world – for a vacation or a stopover, this new centre for tourism in Dubai promises an experience in the grandest style and well worth including in your travel plans, particularly for those who enjoy fine dining and those who love to shop.

There are over 160 levels in the Burj Khalifa – including the area given over to the Armani Hotel. The elevator has the longest travel distance in the world and there are double deck elevators which travel at 10 meters per second-the highest speeds to take you up to the highest level observation deck, where breath taking panoramic views can be enjoyed by night and day. Most of the lower levels of the Burj Khalifa are taken up by the luxurious Armani Hotel with 160 guest rooms, suites and nine hundred one or two room living accommodation units. There are 37 floors of office space all fitted out with the very latest in design and e-technology – the Burj Khalifa is a new hub for both business and social interaction and will bring some much needed new tourism and trade into the economy of Dubai.

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